Peerless Blade

“We’re discovered.”

At Kaid’s calm voice, the Royal Guard sharpened their edges.

“There’s a considerable skilled fighter inside the 7th Tribe who can detect our presence.”

“You mean the 7th Tribe, Bades?”

“No. Something with broader energy sense. An existence related to the Soul Ledger.”

When Kaid detected amber energy, it also grasped their existence.

The Royal Guard couldn’t feel the suspicious energy spreading widely from that castle.

Only Kaid could see the amber hazes flowing out beyond the castle like fog.

Rummmmble!

As the castle gate opened, considerable spirit casters began bursting out.

They tried to climb precisely to the mountainside where Kaid’s party was located.

“A means to break through has appeared.”

Kaid rather viewed this situation as opportunity.

“Spirit Stones?”

“We left most flame stones.”

Kaid nodded and drew his sword.

“Number 10.”

“Yes!”

“The lead pursuer. Can you bewitch him?”

“Of course!”

Bleak energy formed at the sword tip.

“Kill everyone except that bastard and change clothes. And use flame stones immediately upon entering the castle.”

“Understood!”

Kaid descended the mountain first.

Kaid who met the pursuer group in one bound gently swept his wrist.

“Demon…!”

The pursuers’ heads fell off with eyes wide open. When the following Royal Guard countered with spirit techniques, roars echoed throughout the mountain.

“How dare you enter with those filthy feet knowing where this is!”

The one presumed to be the pursuers’ captain struck down a greatsword heavily.

BOOM!

As soon as the blade touched the ground, boulders surged and scattered in all directions.

An earth spirit caster.

Moreover, one boasting skill to the level of making the body into stone.

But Kaid’s sword cut rocks as softly as down.

Swish!

“…!?”

There was no gap for the earth caster’s second strike to burst out.

The momentum that cut the rock swept his body as is.

When vital points were struck throughout his body in an instant, he stiffened while raising the greatsword.

Kaid recovered his sword and commanded.

“Begin.”

Number 10 spread both hands that had been pressed together and pressed firmly on his temple.

As eerie energy seeped into his head, he rolled his eyes back white and dropped the greatsword from his hands.

And shortly after.

He whose brown pupils returned was staring at Number 10 with a somewhat dazed appearance.

Number 10 brushed off her palms and let out a laughter-mixed voice.

“Play with him as you wish! Supreme General!”

Number 10’s achievement was also outstanding.

She who’d made a contract with an illusion spirit had been an illusionist to the degree of confusing others’ eyes, but as she went through war, even abilities like ‘brainwashing’ expanded.

Right now that bastard would never escape from bewilderment until Number 10 released him.

“Let us into the castle.”

“Yes.”

And the party wore the dead’s clothes over theirs.

The demon masks were made hazy with Number 10’s illusion technique to appear like the dead’s faces to others.

“The pursuit unit returns to the castle!”

He who recognized Kaid and the Royal Guard as his pursuit unit turned steps back to the castle.

The process of passing through the castle gate proceeded very easily.

He entered the castle interior like familiar daily routine and spoke.

“Since we suppressed the Demon bastards, I must report to the 7th Tribe immediately.”

With excited expression as if he’d achieved merit, he suffered terrible illusion technique.

In a situation where even he himself couldn’t grasp reality and illusion’s boundary, they’d thought he’d wander the castle interior without any sense of discord.

But before the pursuit captain took a few steps, plunderers rushed from all directions.

At the center was a slender build, long-haired man.

“7th Tribe! I killed the Demon bastards!”

“Fool.”

The man, Bades, drew his longsword and stared at Kaid behind the pursuit captain.

“However, you brought him well.”

“Yes…?”

That was the pursuit captain’s last voice.

As soon as his head fell, plunderers aimed weapons at Kaid and the Royal Guard.

“I scattered energy to resemble the pursuit unit as much as possible, but even this doesn’t work.”

Though Kaid had worked to resemble the dead’s energy, Bades had already been waiting for them to come.

Inside the castle.

That bastard looking down here from the highly rising building was certainly the amber’s master.

He’d seen through illusion’s boundary.

“I must hear the answer directly.”

That moment, Kaid’s energy that had wrapped the Royal Guard vanished.

As soon as the Royal Guard’s original appearance was reproduced beyond illusion in reality, they threw flame stones from their bosoms generously.

“Where do you try petty tricks…!”

Before Bades’s storm could wrap the flame stones, Kaid’s sword moved first.

Clang!

Bades and Kaid clashed, and flame stones that spread in all directions vomited fierce cries.

BANG!

Roars that seemed like the castle would crumble echoed.

Acrid smoke bloomed thickly, making it difficult to even distinguish heaven and earth, while screams of those engulfed in flames fluttered chaotically.

Bang bang bang!

The Royal Guard split up toward the castle interior while tearing through soldiers.

They proceeded with preliminary work to supply new Spirit Stones and facilitate the large army’s advance.

Though Bades saw the enemy’s tricks plainly, he couldn’t take even one step.

Every time he tried to raise spirit technique, Kaid added power to his sword, and body strength drained out as if meridians were severed.

Bades had never experienced such unfamiliar swordsmanship.

“Do you think your nation will be safe even after raiding our nation this night!”

As soon as he shook it off with full force while gritting teeth, three faint lines aimed simultaneously at neck, abdomen, and thigh. As Bades retreated backward, he raised a storm in the brief gap.

A defensive means where whatever flew from any angle would scatter in wind.

He’d intended to catch his breath briefly, but this was Bades’s misjudgment.

Thanks to the storm wrapping all directions, he could protect his body, but conversely his field of vision was blocked.

Kaid wasn’t one to miss this instant.

A blade refined pitch-black was newly laid on the sword tip.

The sword resembling night sky drew a nimble arc and split the storm in half.

“…!”

Bades whose posture scattered momentarily to pressure bursting out as the storm split.

Graceful lines swept across the widely opened torso.

Swish.

The moment he put the sword in the scabbard, Bades collapsed with limbs severed.

Emotions not understanding the strike just now transmitted from two eyes that hadn’t closed.

“7th Tribe!”

Elders who were the 7th Tribe’s other masters rushed urgently.

When Kaid who’d surveyed their spirit power judged they wouldn’t become threat factors in future war, he ran without lingering attachment to the towering building.

“This bastard! Demon Captain!”

Kaid lightly brushed away the elders’ spirit power with his palm and entered the castle interior’s center in an instant. He looked around while processing guards rushing from places.

BOOM!

The Royal Guard was stirring up eight points.

Now that the 7th Tribe was dead, skilled fighters who could face them were at most only the elders.

But before elders arrived, this situation would end.

‘I just need to dig up that.’

He leapt to the building flowing out evil energy regardless of the 7th Tribe’s death.

Stepping on the wall to rush to the top, one withered old man was sitting cross-legged.

On wrinkled skin showing not the slightest vitality, faint amber threads were crawling around.

“Kekekekek. So you’re the rumored Demon Captain.”

Not a single spirit power was felt.

The amber energy was also fainter than opponents met until now.

But it kept stimulating something lodged deep in his chest.

Disgusting enough to make him nauseous, he drew his sword in one motion.

“You seem to have met quite a few like me. Not the slightest sign of surprise.”

“If you follow me obediently, I’ll spare your life.”

“Why? Are you curious about this special power that isn’t spirit power?”

“The life that doesn’t have much remaining. If you want to prolong even that, it’s better to shut your mouth and follow.”

“Kekekek. Look here. You yourself possess power with different nature from spirits, don’t you?”

Sinister eyes as if looking into Kaid’s innermost thoughts.

“It’s like the dead bestowing protection. Oh, that’s right! Something very precious is staying by your side! Stronger than any spirit! Sacred! Noble! And great! Something is bestowing power to you! Spirit casters like the 7th Tribe don’t even reach a speck!”

When he’d cut off the amber arm, he’d seen it return to normal.

For research, he mustn’t kill him.

If there was no room for compromise, he’d cut and split the limbs, leave only breath attached, and drag him to Barganta.

“In the point of longing for the dead, we’re like compatriots. I’ll give you an opportunity. Don’t you want to revive the dead?”

Then, the old man’s amber threads were absorbed into the ground.

“Since the Soul Ledger is nearby, life and death will reverse to draw paradise on this earth!”

Riddle-like words rode the wind like an incantation.

Kaid closed distance in one bound and drew four sword strokes.

Swish!

The old man’s arms and legs were cut off. He whose only torso remained rolled on the floor. But Kaid frowned.

Not a single drop of blood flowed out.

“Hahahaha! I heard rumors you’d come well! Join with us, Demon Captain!”

The old man rotted away festering and became ash.

Simultaneously, evil things emitting foul stench rushed to the top.

“…”

Kaid couldn’t bring out any words.

A bizarre spectacle he was seeing for the first time in life was unfolding before his eyes.

Those who’d just died to him and the Royal Guard revealed white pupils and moved alive again.

Swooosh!

Brushing away wind that blew at the top, he turned his gaze east.

Bades, whose limbs had been attached in a state woven with amber threads, was holding a sword.

He even wore stronger spirit power than in life and wielded delicate storms.

Bang!

As Kaid retreated half a step backward, he drew sword strokes in all directions.

Jet-black sword energy cut the dead’s necks, but amber threads burst out and attached them to bodies again.

And they became faster.

Bodies became solid like rocks, while arms became flexible like mollusks.

Things impossible to understand with common sense spread beyond the top throughout the castle.

Clang!

While clashing swords with Bades, Kaid glanced around.

‘Though I cannot know the principle, it’s impossible to predict how long these things will move alive. A war of attrition won’t be good.’

He must find that old man.

Certainly, the main body was hidden somewhere here.

But no matter how much he raised energy sense, the old man wasn’t felt.

‘Did he say my power resembled the Soul Ledger?’

Completely different energy.

Even so, if there were common elements…

“Huff.”

Kaid awakened his Guardian Spirit for the first time in a long while.

More heterogeneous than spirits, not grasped by tribal chiefs, and his protection that had been together since birth.

Instantly, the world was dyed black.

A space darker than even night sky.

In that place covered entirely in a jet-black lake in all directions, there was a tree shining like moonlight.

Kaid’s Guardian Spirit, who revealed a pure white face while hanging down pitch-black hair, smiled as always and pointed with a finger.

Beneath Kaid’s feet.

Boom!

When he shook off Bades, the world returned to night sky again.

The space where the Guardian Spirit vanished.

But the meaning the Guardian Spirit left was becoming clear now.

WHOOOSH!

He struck down the pitch-black sword beneath his feet.

Though the building collapsed from the top reaching to the ground, Kaid’s momentum didn’t stop.

Kaid who finally reached underground faced a space full of foul stench and frowned.

It was a space as wide as the castle, entirely full of corpses.

Beyond that, a middle-aged man with copper skin flashing amber patterns was sitting cross-legged.

He half-opened his eyes and wore a hazy smile.

“Since even the Death God of the Soul Ledger cannot help it, you were born with a king’s vessel.”

He was certainly the old man who’d been at the top.

“It’s regrettable that this reality has no choice but to use you as mere material.”

Corpses in all directions raised their bodies.

To those things where maggots and disgust flowed down mixed with amber, Kaid calmly aimed his sword.

“I’ll attach that head and take you.”

When the middle-aged man grinned coldly, corpses rushed at Kaid in unison.

In the middle of corpses with no place to escape, Kaid’s sword drew a jet-black crescent moon.